The series is based on a short produced for Frederator's Nicktoons Network animation incubator series Random! Cartoons. After the short became a viral hit on the internet, Cartoon Network picked it up for a full-length series that previewed on March 11, 2010, and officially premiered on April 5, 2010. The series, which is heavily inspired by the fantasyrole-playing gameDungeons and Dragons as well as video games, is produced via hand-drawn animation. Episodes are created through the process of storyboarding, and a single episode takes roughly nine months to complete. The Adventure Time cast records their lines together in group recordings as opposed to different recording sessions with each voice actor, and the series also regularly employs guest actors and actresses for minor and recurring characters.

Each Adventure Time episode is about eleven minutes in length; pairs of episodes are often telecast in order to fill a half-hour program time slot. The series has completed four seasons of twenty-six episodes each, and is currently on its fifth, which debuted on November 12, 2012. Ever since its debut, Adventure Timehas been a ratings success for Cartoon Network. As of March 2012, the show is viewed by approximately 2 to 3 million viewers per week. The show has received positive reviews from critics and has developed a cult following among teenagers and adults, many of whom are attracted due to the series' animation, stories and characters. Adventure Time has also been nominated for five Annie Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a Sundance Film Festival Award. In 2013, the series won a Motion Picture Sound Editors Award for the episode "Card Wars".

Most of its films, shows and specials are based on licensed properties, mainly children's literature, but original programming is also part of its roster. It ventured into the world of live action from its establishment and continues to do so.

In October 1985, during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan and on the eve of nuclear war, a depressed Rorschach, one of several outlawed vigilante superheroes, begins to investigate why all former masked superheroes are either dead or have declined.